The article analyses ‘acculturation’, a concept deriving from cultural anthropology, from a social anthropological perspective. The term ‘ex-Cocama’ was coined by cultural anthropologists to denote the supposed loss or refusal of an indigenous identity by the Cocama people of Peruvian Amazonia. These people therefore seem to represent a classic case of ‘acculturation’. The article argues, however, that this apparently classical example of acculturation is better understood as yet another example of an indigenous Amazonian sociologic, for it is made out of classical themes of sameness and difference, potential affinity and onomastic processes as other indigenous Amazonian societies. This continuity of structure within radical transformation therefore raises questions about the nature of Amazonian history, questions that have simply been obscured by the very concept of acculturation.
Cocama; ex-Cocama; Amazonia; Acculturation; Social Analysis